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Nuts caused tooth decay and bad breath in hunter-gatherers

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a small collective of hunter-gatherers had gum disease, tooth decay and awful breath thanks to their excessive consumption of nuts.

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The scientists behind the research examined 52 adult remains from Morocco's Taforalt Cave, dating back to approximately 15,000 years ago. They found the teeth riddled with cavities, deducing that nut gathering and storage began a lot earlier than they had previously thought.

Until now, tooth decay and its accompanying health problems were thought to have begun around 10,000 years ago and presumed rare in hunter-gatherers. However, there were "exceptionally high" instances of evidence of dental disease in the 15,000 year old remains, with 51 percent of the teeth showing some form of disorder. This is much closer to the level of decay seen in prehistoric farmers, when processed food was more widely eaten.

Co-author of the study, Isabelle DeGroote of Liverpool John Moores University, said: "The majority of the people's mouths were affected by both cavities in the teeth and abscesses...They would have suffered from frequent tooth ache and bad breath."

Accelerator mass spectrometry and potent microscopes were used to date the remains and the nuts, respectively. The scientists found evidence of pine nuts, juniper berries, pistachios, wild oats and a large amount of acorns, which the team believe to have been gathered and kept in storage as a food source throughout the year.

The study also details the discovery of long esparto grasses, which were probably used to weave baskets to carry and store such vast amounts of nuts, demonstrating "the earliest documented evidence of systematic exploitation of wild plant resources in hunter-gatherers from Africa."

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These particular hunter-gatherers are believed to be Iberomaurusian, who are said to have been a "complex" people, known for performing elaborate burials of their dead and, thanks to this recent discovery, for eating and storing a remarkable amount of nuts.